


maybe we still have time

by flusteredkeith



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon - TV, Canon Timeline, Comfort, Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Forehead Kisses, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, SHEITH - Freeform, Sleepy Cuddles, Tropes, Yes it's another nightmare trope, but i ended up being really happy with this, nightmare trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 10:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8398180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flusteredkeith/pseuds/flusteredkeith
Summary: “Nightmare?” Keith whispered, his voice still husky from sleep as he moved over to make more room on his bed. Shiro was grateful for the immediate assumption; it made him feel like the apology that was at the tip of his tongue was never necessary in the first place.“Unfortunately,” Shiro said, lifting his legs over onto the bed and settling in closer beneath the blankets. He leaned back against the headboard as Keith yawned.“Hmm, strange,” Keith said, closing his eyes again and smiling slightly. “I wouldn’t consider this that unfortunate.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first Voltron fic!! I have a lot of Sheith feels. I know it's another nightmare trope, but I couldn't resist. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing this!
> 
> (also, shoutout to [Priya](http://archiveofourown.org/users/rhapsodyinpink/pseuds/rhapsodyinpink) for helping me with the title :) and special thanks to [peachy-matsu](http://peachy-matsu.tumblr.com) who decided to draw a [quick sketch](http://peachy-matsu.tumblr.com/post/152472730130/surprise-im-multishipper-trash-3c-i-just-read) based off this. bless her heart.)

Shiro awoke in cold sweat; bones aching, muscles throbbing. His phantom limb was being squeezed from all sides, compressing his shoulder into tight knots until he could barely breathe. With a great effort he gasped for air, pulling it desperately into his own lungs. He could still feel the ghost of a metal claw digging into his skin.

It took a few more breaths for him to steady his heart rate. He was in the castle. He was safe. There was no one else in the room with him. He was in the castle. He was safe. But even as he lay back down on his side, none of these attempts at relaxation stopped the cold clammy hands and eery eyes from flashing through his mind again.

He cringed. There was no one else in the room with him.

He flipped his pillow over for the cooler side as the dark remnants of the dream took its sweet time to fade away. The enclosed space around his bed seemed to be to caving in on him and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched, though he knew he was alone.

_Alone._

He shook his head. This was ridiculous. There was no reason he shouldn’t be able to handle this on his own. He was a grown man who had lived through hell and back again. It was ironic, really. Living out in space should have made hell feel further away, not closer.

 _“But hell follows you, even into Heaven,”_ Keith’s voice resounded in the back of his mind. Shiro paused and let the words echo in his ears, focusing on the memory of the red paladin’s face when he had said them. His blue-grey eyes had been fiery and intense, his voice steady and firm. Although Shiro couldn’t remember the context in which the phrase was said, the thought of how bold Keith’s convictions always were brought a smile to Shiro’s face, and as he lay there in the quiet darkness thinking upon the hotheaded paladin’s words, his breathing began to even out and the room seemed to become warmer.

His fingers gripped the sides of his head, trying to quell the pounding in his temple. Keith had told him that if he ever had nightmares again, Shiro was free to come find him, no matter what the hour was or what the circumstances were. The open invitation hung tantalizingly over his head, calling out to him, presenting itself within reach.

He turned over in his bed. Inherently, he would feel bad about waking his teammate for such a small problem, but if he were honest with himself, he craved Keith’s company. Being defenders of the universe and trying to effectively lead Team Voltron, Shiro hardly had time to spend with Keith, even as a friend. After all his time of knowing the red paladin, he trusted Keith to be self-sufficient and independent and therefore spent more time boosting the others’ morales instead. This time, however, it was Shiro who needed to lean on Keith. He knew he found comfort in the younger man’s familiar presence, knew that if anyone had the capacity to understand and accept the depth of his suffering, Keith would.

And so he went.

After throwing on a tank top, he walked out of his room and tiptoed through the hallway so as not to wake the others. Despite his own choice to seek out Keith, guilt nibbled at Shiro’s conscience as he passed each of his teammate’s rooms: Lance, Hunk, then Pidge—though Pidge was probably not sleeping in her room anyway. Nonetheless, the dark corridor with all the bedrooms haunted him. On principle, they were a team, and Shiro didn’t like keeping secrets on a team.

It was with this uncertainty that he arrived at Keith’s door. Staring at the button that would grant him entrance, Shiro crossed his arms in doubt. He glanced back toward his own room, which was hidden in shadow, then back at Keith’s door. The prospect of an old friend’s company was presenting itself to him on a silver platter. The facts were lined up right in front of him: he didn’t want to be alone and Keith had offered. It was never that simple, and he wanted to be selfish for a change—just this once.

Taking a deep breath, he lifted his index finger and pressed the button.

Upon entering the room, all misgivings were cleared as he took in the precious scene before him. By day, Keith was hot-tempered and unpredictable, always prepared for a fight and armed with a cutting remark. But by night, in the dim darkness of his room, he was the perfect embodiment of peace. Relaxed and snuggled up beneath cozy sheets with his hands curled up against his chest, the normally fierce paladin looked calm and unthreatening. His shoulders moved up and down to the rhythm of his slow breathing and soft locks of black hair gently framed his face. Shiro couldn’t deny it; there was a certain hidden grace about Keith that came along with the rough edges—it just took being in a vulnerable state for it to show.

Approaching with caution so as not to disturb the serene picture before him, Shiro shifted his weight slowly onto the edge of the bed. Smiling, he allowed himself a few moments to fully appreciate the endearing sight of Keith’s sleeping form before brushing Keith’s hair away from his face, his hand turning so that the back of his fingers trailed down his jawline and rested against his warm cheek. It wasn’t long before Keith’s eyebrows began to twitch.

With a faint and sleepy moan, his eyes fluttered open. For a few seconds, Shiro waited as Keith blinked and came to. When he did, the young paladin lifted a hand to cover Shiro’s, which was still on his cheek.

“Nightmare?” Keith whispered, his voice still husky from sleep as he moved over to make more room on his bed. Shiro was grateful for the immediate assumption; it made him feel like the apology that was at the tip of his tongue was never necessary in the first place.

“Unfortunately,” Shiro said, lifting his legs over onto the bed and settling in closer beneath the blankets. He leaned back against the headboard as Keith yawned.

“Hmm, strange,” Keith said, closing his eyes again and smiling slightly. “I wouldn’t consider this that unfortunate.”

Shiro chuckled and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. He could feel Keith’s pulse under his palms beating much faster than the young paladin’s calm and collected exterior showed. Afraid of disrupting Keith’s sleep further, Shiro refrained from starting up a conversation. As if reading his mind, however, Keith spoke up.

“Feel free to talk if you want,” he said in a low voice. “I’m listening.”

Shiro opened his mouth, fully intending to tell him about the nightmare that woke him, but the vision of Keith shuffling closer to lean his head on Shiro’s hip derailed his train of thought, bringing him back instead to a distant memory of grassy fields and peaceful sunlight that until now, had felt too far away to reach. They had sat together beneath an oak tree once and Keith had ended up falling asleep next to him. The sun had been setting and the leaves dying as summer came to an end. A lump rose in his throat as he thought about their old life in their previous world and he realized he’d never wanted to talk about nightmares anyway.

“I wonder what season it is back on Earth,” Shiro said after a while, his voice thick and constricted. There was no way for him to tell how long it had been except for the obvious knowledge that it had been too damn long. One look at Keith’s faded smile told Shiro that he felt the same way. “Do you think the autumn leaves would have fallen by now?”

Keith shrugged. “From this distance, anything is possible.”

“I can hardly remember it,” Shiro continued, his head starting to hurt again. “The sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet, the breeze against my face—”

“Hot cider with cinnamon sticks,” Keith murmured with a sidelong glance up at Shiro. “But you don’t remember that part as well, do you?”

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said at once, because he wanted to remember. “So many things are so vaguely muddled in my mind ever since… well, you know.”

He didn’t need to mention his lost time in captivity. Keith reached out a hand for Shiro’s arm and tugged him down closer to his pillow. Shiro complied but rested his head a safe distance away from Keith’s, just in case. Keith took one look at Shiro, then rolled away from him so that he was lying on his back.

“Don’t worry about it,” Keith said, and though he was staring up at the ceiling while he said this, Shiro could tell he meant it. “It isn’t your fault.”

He knew Keith didn’t blame him for anything but that didn’t stop Shiro from wishing he could piece everything from the last year back together faster than how he was currently doing. He hated being unable to give Keith any concrete answers.

“The seasons are passing too fast,” the older paladin sighed. “I just wish we had more time.”

“Now, or then?” Keith asked, still facing upwards.

Shiro opened his mouth to respond but had to pause. As defenders of the universe, with all the training and battles they still had yet to undergo, he had been referring to the now. But now that Keith mentioned it…

“Both,” he replied. “There’s just so much time lost, so much time to make up for, but not enough in between to… to…”

He trailed off as the thought of all the memories he couldn’t recall threatened to consume him. The throbbing in his head grew louder and he shut his eyes tight as he fought to clear it.

“To recover?” Keith turned his head to look at Shiro. The grey in his eyes tinted with blue as it caught the light, leaving Shiro to admire the way they always managed to darken yet stay ablaze at the same time.

“Yeah.” Shiro took a deep breath and exhaled. The knot in his stomach began to loosen and unravel. “It’s just taking too long.”

“So let it,” Keith said, shrugging again. “You can’t rush it.”

“But with the universe on the line, how can I be the head lion when my own mind—” he cut himself off. _When my own mind feels so broken,_ he finished in his head. He couldn’t bear the weight of saying it outloud, even to Keith, but one look at Keith’s hard expression told him that the younger man didn’t need him to.

“As important as the head is,” Keith said, smiling slightly, “it’s not the only necessary component of a body, you know. Your arms and legs are all here to support you. You’re not alone.”

_You’re not alone._

Shiro was at a loss for what to say, so he didn’t speak. Instead, he reached out to wrap an arm around Keith, palm cupping his head, and pulled him into his chest. He felt the younger paladin stiffen at the sudden embrace before slowly relaxing and burrowing his face in the crook of Shiro’s neck.

“So stop being so narcissistic,” Keith mumbled against his bare shoulder. “I hear the right hand is pretty awesome, too.”

“Who’s being narcissistic now?” Shiro chuckled, burying his nose into Keith’s hair. He could feel Keith smile against his skin.

“You don’t have to be whole in order to be a leader,” Keith said, lifting a hand to run his fingers along Shiro’s mechanical arm. “That’s what you told me once.”

“You’d think I’d take my own advice more often,” Shiro laughed. “That's why I have you. To throw all the nonsense I spew back at me.”

“Hey, as long as you believe it yourself,” Keith said. “Otherwise, what's the point?”

 _The point is I love you,_ Shiro found himself thinking, but he dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. There was no purpose in saying it now, so he settled instead for cradling Keith’s head closer to the pounding of his heart.

They laid there for a few moments in silence, Shiro closing his eyes to the rhythmic beating of their chests. Whatever horrors woke him up in the first place now felt ages away in the comfort of Keith’s presence and he felt his consciousness slipping back into slumber. Yawning, he spoke once more.

“Thank you, Keith, by the way.”

“There's no need—”

“I know.”

Keith stayed quiet. Shiro knew it wasn’t easy for him to accept gratitude. Whenever Keith went out of his way for the people he cared about, he never expected anything in return because it wasn’t the reason he acted out in the first place. The irony was that the notion always made Shiro appreciate the hotheaded paladin even more than he initially would have. Letting out a long sigh, he rolled over onto his back pulling Keith along with him.

“Anyway we should probably get to sleep or else Allura will have us skinned alive for showing up to training with no energy,” he said, reverting back to his usual sensible tone.

“I'll take being skinned for this,” Keith said, nuzzling his nose into Shiro’s chest. Chuckling, Shiro wove his fingers through Keith’s hair and closed his eyes. Although he knew he would eventually have to face his nightmares again and again, Shiro was grateful that for one short night, no matter how quickly the seasons passed or the world moved, there was still time left to enjoy a quiet moment with Keith.

**Author's Note:**

> Say hello to me at my voltron side blog [flusteredkeith](https://flusteredkeith.tumblr.com)!


End file.
